Governor Tarkin/Stormtrooper - TAC - Comic Packs (No. 03)

Governor Tarkin commands a personal contingent of elite stormtroopers aboard the Death Star, each one personally cleared and handpicked by the Governor himself.

The first wave of the 30 (77-07) Comic Packs line was anything but exciting. Hasbro was on a mission to pay tribute to some of the earliest Star Wars comics and for that we are thankful. But the method in which they reintroduced action figures from the comics left us wanting a lot more. The third Comic Packs set in the line (and second available at mass retail) was the Governor Tarkin/Stormtrooper set based on Marvel Comics’ Star Wars series. You would think that a dynamic duo like these two would present collectors with a fine set of action figures, but it didn’t. Hasbro resurrected some pretty old sculpt that just haven’t aged well and the coloring schemes they’ve applied to the action figures are just too awkward for words. We see what the intent was, but the delivery will leave you feeling a bit flat. As we have mentioned before perhaps realistic takes of the comics characters would have been the best option. The bright colors are just too much for the senses.

The better figure in this set is Governor Tarkin. Hasbro looked to 2005’s ROTS Tarkin (III 45) figure and revisited him with an all-new paint job. We have to credit Hasbro for making the “young” version of the 2005 look old with a clever new paint job on his head. (His hair is gray and the sides of it are white.) And they’ve managed to successful apply some age in the paint job on his face, so this genuinely looks like a “Episode IV” version of Grand Moff Tarkin. Although it’s accurate to the comics, we do not like the paint job to the uniform. He has yellow stripe running up both sides of his chest and then yellow bands have been applied to his cuffs. The entire uniform is cast in a very unattractive green and his collar has been painted orange. Obviously these are very odd color combinations and although they look strange together, they are faithful to what we see in the comics.

The Stormtrooper figure is the least impressive. They reached back into their archives to dust off the 1999 POTF Stormtrooper (Comm Tech) figure. While this was one of the best Stormtrooper figures in Hasbro’s long history, the release of the 2004 VOTC Stormtrooper has changed the way we look at these Imperial soldiers and now the 1999 version looks terribly outdated. What makes this figure worse is the blue wash they covered him in to represent the shadowing in the comics. It is really a poor way to decorate figures and we wish Hasbro would abandon this method immediately. (Editor’s Note: Hasbro did abandon the blue wash for the stormtrooper armor and released new and improved all-white versions of these figures to retail. And for that we are thankful.) It’s likely that the first wave of Comic Packs won’t start your excitement for the line brewing, but Hasbro promises that good things are to come of it. Perhaps this is their way of amortizing costs right now. (Editor's Note: Special thanks to Jayson Krebsbach from Yakface.com for the reference images. Editing by Jedi Temple Archives.)

Stormtrooper

Status: Stormtrooper is a repaint of 1999's POTF2 Stormtrooper (Comm Tech) figure and painted to look like his appearance in the Marvel comic adaptation of Star Wars. There are two distinct paint jobs of this figure. The first version was highlighted in multiple shades of blue and the running change version has been left all-white with some red accents in the helmet.